Suppose you have been running Vault Basic or Pro using MS SQL Server Express 2005 or 2008, depending on when you started using document management. One of the primary limitations of Express was the database having a size limitation of 4GB. With Express 2008 R2 and newer, that limitation is expanded to 10GB of data. Seriously? 10GB of metadata, data about the data? That is lots of data.

Now, if you’re using replication, you are forced into a full version of MS SQL Server. For those not using replication, here the two main reasons:

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Just a quick note… For those that might be using Vault already, this will not be news. For those contemplating / testing Vault for your firms, this will help you past a stumbling block.

First, the issue… Some firms like to have Civil3D startup at what’s called the zero screen as shown above. It’s a clean place to start your work effort. You’ve got a list of Recent Documents front and center. You’ve got templates available to start new drawings, and so on. What you don’t have is:

I know everyone is well aware of drawing settings in Civil 3D. And in those settings is a tab for various abbreviations used throughout Civil3D. That dialog box looks like this:

Default Drawing Settings

If you collapse all of the headings, the very last group is for profile label abbreviations. Yeah, yeah, get to the point.

They don’t work.

See, be careful of what you wish for. All other properties work in each group except for PROFILE. Wait a minute… Civil 3D has been out awhile and so has abbreviations. This can’t be right, could it? So here’s the details….

Autodesk Infraworks 360 Pro – Rental option for those without the Suite; reduced functions compared to the Suite version

Roadway Design for Infraworks 360 Pro – additional road design functions in the rental version to match the Suite version

Sadly, even with the brevity I used above, I barely keep the various offerings organized in my head. If you have happened to download the subscription update to Infraworks (R2), this added to the confusion with several icons on your desktop.

And, only one version would work depending on what you were actually authorized to use.

Well, as of tomorrow, Autodesk has thankfully decided to reorganize a bit to help reduce confusion by defining two key points; where are various functions and who has access to those functions.

For those with the various Design Suites

Autodesk Infraworks – included version in the Suite

For those using the Rental option

Autodesk Infraworks 360 – renamed without the PRO label, only way to access cloud based features

Roadway Design for Infraworks 360 – requires 360 license; moved roads and highways functionality from Suite to Rental version

These changes DO NOT affect the software you currently have installed, only new purchases using the updated installer will be affected. So, the additional roads and highways module in the new release will be there for current installations.

Here’s my takeaway:

if you don’t collaborate on the infraworks models, then you will be happy with the Suite offerings.

If you need to collaborate (use cloud services), chances are good that you are working on transportation projects so the Rental option will be applicable to you.

If you need to collaborate or share the model but aren’t doing transportation work, you will still need the Rental version, sorry. There is no current option to include those cloud services in the Suite version of Infraworks.

It has been brought to my attention that folks are seeing different values with a model being analyzed in SSA 2013 versus SSA 2014. Alas, this falls back to an error in the 2013 version that was corrected in the 2014 version. The problem it seems relates to bypass flow and gutter spread for inlets. And I quote….

The curb and gutter inlet calculator and the inlet calculations sometimes produce different results in 2013 than in 2014. In some cases, the gutter width is missing in the spread calculations.

The corrections made now follow normal expectations in the HEC-22 model. So fear not, here is a case for at least moving your hydrology calculations to 2014 if nothing else!

Just your friendly reminder that a service pack for Civil 3D 2014 has been released. Go get the update here.

In a continuing effort to provide high quality products, Autodesk has released Autodesk® AutoCAD® Civil 3D® 2014 Service Pack 1, which fixes or addresses a variety of issues discovered by Autodesk’s internal testing team and by customers using the Customer Error Reporting Utility.

If you’re wondering what’s in the update, well you’ll need to read the notes. There are lots of little fixes, resolutions and enhancements. So if you’re that firm that waits for the first update, here ya go!

{EDIT – For the industrious few, there is a “master” update page that all support references are shown. That link is shown below. It unfortunately does not have an RSS feed. So you will have to check it occasionally or just continue to let us do the heavy lifting!}

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Just a quick note. I came across a helpful tidbit last week regarding Apple products and how to demonstrate various things without actually owning said device. First, why do I need to do this? Well, for starters, Autodesk has become very cloud and mobile centric. As such, it becomes increasingly difficult to both demonstrate and educate firms and employees about these services. Until now.

I am now able to provide adequate demonstration/education with having to own or even find a way to project said devices. Now, i do realize this is completely web based and there are no apps to display. My primary focus using this tool is to educate people around the Autodesk 360 service as well as Infrastructure Map Server and how we can leverage design information in the field….